A Long Time Ago
by coruscantbookshelf
Summary: A Jedi team investigating an anomaly on a faraway world get more than they bargained for. Minor characters (author's own).


Surveillance mission report: Sentinel Master Lusien Gorixo reporting to Council Master Mace Windu. Strictly in confidence. Not to be Archived.

Please note the language of the planet in question is unfamiliar, and no spellings of names are guaranteed correct. All words heard spoken but not seen written are italicized.

The mission was assigned by Master Windu personally, and is deemed a matter of high urgency, due to the rarity of Council members choosing to speak directly to Sentinel Masters. The mission brief was that an anomaly had occurred, or was expected to occur, on a certain world beyond Wild Space, which anomaly would change the universe as we know it. I was accompanied by my Padawan, Jiron Jados, and Padawan Reseda Che, whose Master was indisposed and remained at Mereaux.

In the area of the world where we landed, the climate is hot and arid, though not insupportable. The language spoken there is called _Aramaac,_ a tongue not known in the Republic. However, I found fewer language difficulties than anticipated, as the spoken form of this _Aramaac_ is closely related to Umgallian Lisarith, in which both Padawans and I are moderately fluent. The written form of _Aramaac_ was entirely new to us, and I managed to obtain a sample of it for the interest of the Archives.

We first arrived in the small city of _Vrushlayam_ on a local feast-day, the beginning of a major festival, and the city was crowded with foreigners from all over the world, so we were moderately inconspicuous. On the first day, we became delayed in a crowd of people observing a procession. They were throwing down their cloaks, and the large flat leaves of trees, to make a clean path for a man, who was riding a beast of some sort down the street, followed by some dozen or so other men on foot. While I did not see the man, Padawan Jados did, and reported that he was not noticeably different in feature or dress to any other man in the city. A bystander informed me that the man was a savior, or _m'ssiyah_ , foretold by the holy writings of the place.

We obtained accommodation in the city, and used it as a base of operations as we explored, and spoke to the people, gathering information. Five days after our arrival, there was a minor disturbance late at night. Looking out of a window, Padawan Jados saw that the man from the procession had been arrested by armed security personnel for an unknown misdemeanor, and the man's followers resisted his arrest, which was what caused the disturbance. Padawan Che was keen to investigate further, finding it suspicious that an ordinary-looking and unarmed person would be arrested by such a large number of armed men. Although I gave him permission to do so, his researches ended at the gates to the residence of one of the chief men in the city.

Over the course of the following morning, nothing new could be learned about the rumored anomaly we were sent to investigate. Near the residence of the governor, Padawan Che was separated from us in the crowd, remained lost for some hours, and returned describing the situation as 'a zoo' and saying that the governor had ordered the execution of the man arrested the previous night. He also learned the man's name, which he rendered as _Yeshwa_.

At around noon, it suddenly became dark. I can state with confidence that this was not an eclipse, because total darkness prevailed for a further three hours. Padawan Jados had heard something relating to a place called _Galgota_ outside the city, and made his way there. Padawan Che and I remained in the city, but the festival had brought so many strangers into the area that it was difficult to gain any accurate information as to major current events.

Three hours after noon, there was a violent earthquake of the shaking type, opening crevasses in the ground and causing widespread general destruction. However, the most unusual feature of this event was the damage to the city's main place of worship. In the culture of _Vrushlayam_ , the chief god is believed to reside in a sanctuary within the larger holy-place complex. During the earthquake, although the temple buildings remained largely intact, the curtain separating the residence of the god from the outer world was torn. I cannot believe this to be accidental or by chance, as the curtain is said to be over ten centimeters thick and twenty meters high, and to have been ripped from the top down.

Another event of the afternoon was the opening of the tombs throughout the region. This was not performed by direct sentient intervention, but appears to have been spontaneous. Further, independent witnesses from several parts of the city informed me that the people I saw walking in the streets, from whom everybody shrank in terror, were 'holy people' long dead and now apparently resurrected. If this is the Council's precious anomaly I cannot say I much care for it.

Padawan Jados reappeared toward sundown, much upset. The man _Yeshwa_ was indeed executed, and the earthquake came at the moment of his death. Using this timing as a point of reference, I can say definitely that _Yeshwa_ was of great importance, possibly more than merely local importance, on the following grounds. At the time of his death, there was a disturbance in the Force, as it had been entirely withdrawn. I personally would best describe the experience as similar to the 'tearing' caused by a death, but magnified a few thousandfold, and persisting for some days instead of fading at once. There is no evidence of other Force-sensitive individuals on this world, so I hypothesize that only the Padawans and myself were aware of this metaphysical disturbance.

Padawan Jados further reported hearing bystanders at _Galgota_ saying that this _Yeshwa_ was the son of their god. Padawan Jados, who is a level-headed and experienced Sentinel, was absolutely adamant that _Yeshwa_ had died, was dead, and could not under any possible circumstances have been alive when he was buried. In light of subsequent events, I believe this point to be worthy of inclusion.

Two days later there was another earthquake, possibly an aftershock of the first, but this seems unlikely, as no aftershocks were noticed in the intervening period. (At this point the disturbance ceased. However, something in the Force is still different from its previous state, and I cannot identify the cause or even the exact nature of this peculiarity.) The report was circulated by the elders and rulers of the people that _Yeshwa_ 's body had been stolen from its tomb, but among the common people the story was that he had been raised from the dead, like the 'holy people' who were resurrected on the day of his death. I wished to ascertain the truth of this rumor by speaking with one of _Yeshwa_ 's followers, but none of them could be located until almost seven weeks later. These weeks we spent largely in the city and the surrounding area, and while we heard a great deal about the oppression of the country by a foreign power, little or no information beside old legends and prophecies was forthcoming about any phenomena that might be expected to have widespread effects.

At the end of the seven weeks, we were back in the city _Vrushlayam_. Early in the morning, a crowd gathered around a small house near the center of the city, and we naturally made our way there to investigate. Twelve men, who Padawan Jados identified as _Yeshwa_ 's companions, were seated on the roof of the house and addressing the crowd. I heard that they were speaking of their leader, saying that he was alive and had returned to his father, the chief god. To my great astonishment, the men seemed to be speaking in quite ordinary, unaccented, Galactic Basic. However, Padawan Jados heard the words in Karori, and Padawan Che in Ryl, their respective native languages. I gather from the comments made in the surrounding crowd that others experienced the same phenomenon.

In the confusion over precisely what language the men on the roof were speaking, it was suggested that they might be intoxicated. This does not seem to me an adequate explanation, particularly since this world shows no evidence of technological advancements, and the use of simultaneous-translating protocol droids can be ruled out.

One of the men then stood up, silencing his fellows, and spoke in a loud voice. At this point we all ceased to hear his words in our own languages, and he reverted to _Aramaac_. The man – whose name I later learned to be _Shimmon_ – cited the early hour as proof that he and his friends were sober. Padawan Che made an unnecessary remark to the effect that the earliness or otherwise of the hour would never stop a Sentinel. _Shimmon_ , however, quoted at length from the holy texts of the place, with which everybody present seemed to be familiar, and said that _Yeshwa_ fulfilled of all these prophecies, and was therefore truly the _m'ssiyah_ whose coming the people had anticipated for some thousands of years.

Padawan Che informed me that many of the people then present had also been in the governor's offices seven weeks previously, howling for _Yeshwa_ to be killed. It is perhaps this fact which so deeply affected the crowd, causing them to ask of _Shimmon_ and his fellows what should be done. He told them to repent their past sins, and be baptized in the name of the resurrected _Yeshwa_ , and many people did so.

I must report that the Council's appointed mission is therefore inconclusive, as it is not possible to determine whether the anomalies observed in _Vrushlayam_ during the eight weeks we were there do, or do not, constitute a legitimate cause for concern within the Republic. Padawan Jados, however, has appraised me of his firm conviction that _Shimmon_ was correct, and that the death and resurrection of _Yeshwa_ will 'change everything' beyond all imagination. I do not know what Padawan Jados saw and heard at _Galgota,_ and after, to bring him to this conclusion, but can only note that the boy is rarely mistaken in his instincts, and report to the Council my own findings.

Ends the mission report.


End file.
